518 DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 



the urethra through the perinseum. We now know that a 

 flexible gum catheter, or one made of gutta percha, in the 

 hands of a skilful veterinarian, is, in the normal state of 

 the passages, capable of being passed through the entire 

 urinary canal ; and we may add, there seems reason to hope 

 that Mr. Taylor^s jointed sound may lead to the invention 

 of some sort of flexible or jointed metallic catheter.^ This 

 is the more to be desired from the acknowledged inefficiency 

 of the gum or gutta percha instrument in cases wherein 

 much resistance or obstruction is to be overcome. Fortu- 

 nately for himself and us, the horse, however, is not 

 subject either to stricture of the urethra or to diseased 

 prostate glands. 



The Operation of Cutting into the Perin^eum must, 

 however, still be had recourse to in cases in which no catheter 

 can be introduced. It consists in passing a full-sized whale- 

 bone staff, flattened and grooved at the end, through the penis, 

 until its extremity be felt by the other hand protruding in 

 the perinseum upon it, steadily held by an assistant in this 

 situation, making an incision down to its groove, laying 

 open the urethra to a sufficient extent to admit the intro- 

 duction of the straight or female metallic catheter into the 

 bladder, the same as is done for the admission of the gorget 

 or bistoury in stone. This is an operation very easy of 

 performance, and one that must at all times supersede the 

 necessity for puncturing or 



Tapping the Bladder, as it is commonly called. Still, 

 there may possibly happen cases in which even the straight 

 catheter, per perinc^um, cannot be made to enter the blad- 

 der; and as the organ in a state of distension must be, 

 some how or other, relieved, or it will burst, it is right we 

 should inform ourselves of the alternative mode of operating, 

 viz., tapping the bladder. One method of doing this con- 

 sists in carrying a curved trocar in one hand into the 

 rectum, and plunging it through the gut into the promi- 

 nence of the bladder felt below : the other, or low operation 



• Could a catheter made of some material such as the flexible metallic bougie 

 at present in use in human surgery be made to pass ? 



